June 11, 2008

Dark spots, some as large as 50,000 miles in diameter, typically move across the surface of the sun, contracting and expanding as they go. These strange and powerful phenomena are known as sunspots, but now they are all gone. Not even solar physicists know why it’s happening and what this odd solar silence might be indicating for our future.

Although periods of inactivity are normal for the sun, this current
period has gone on much longer than usual and scientists are starting
to worry—at least a little bit. Recently 100 scientists from Europe,
Asia, Latin America, Africa and North America gathered to discuss the
issue at an international solar conference at Montana State University.
Today's sun is as inactive as it was two years ago, and solar
physicists don’t have a clue as to why.

"It continues to be dead," said Saku Tsuneta with the National
Astronomical Observatory of Japan, program manager for the Hinode solar
mission, noting that it is at least a little bit worrisome for
scientists.

Dana Longcope, a solar physicist at MSU, said the sun usually operates
on an 11-year cycle with maximum activity occurring in the middle of
the cycle. The last cycle reached its peak in 2001 and is believed to
be just ending now, Longcope said. The next cycle is just beginning and
is expected to reach its peak sometime around 2012. But so far nothing
is happening.

"It's a dead face," Tsuneta said of the sun's appearance.

Tsuneta said solar physicists aren't weather forecasters and they can't
predict the future. They do have the ability to observe, however, and
they have observed a longer-than-normal period of solar inactivity. In
the past, they observed that the sun once went 50 years without
producing sunspots. That period coincided with a little ice age on
Earth that lasted from 1650 to 1700. Coincidence? Some scientists say
it was, but many worry that it wasn’t.

Geophysicist Phil Chapman, the first Australian to become an astronaut
with NASA, said pictures from the US Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
also show that there are currently no spots on the sun. He also noted
that the world cooled quickly between January last year and January
this year, by about 0.7C.

"This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record, and
it puts us back to where we were in 1930," Dr Chapman noted in The
Australian recently.

If the world does face another mini Ice Age, it could come without
warning. Evidence for abrupt climate change is readily found in ice
cores taken from Greenland and Antarctica. One of the best known
examples of such an event is the Younger Dryas cooling, which occurred
about 12,000 years ago, named after the arctic wildflower found in
northern European sediments. This event began and ended rather
abruptly, and for its entire 1000 year duration the North Atlantic
region was about 5°C colder. Could something like this happen again?
There’s no way to tell, and because the changes can happen all within
one decade—we might not even see it coming.

The Younger Dryas occurred at a time when orbital forcing should have
continued to drive climate to the present warm state. The unexplained
phenomenon has been the topic of much intense scientific debate, as
well as other millennial scale events.

Now this 11-year low in Sunspot activity has raised fears among a small
but growing number of scientists that rather than getting warmer, the
Earth could possibly be about to return to another cooling period. The
idea is especially intriguing considering that most of the world is in
preparation for global warming.

Canadian scientist Kenneth Tapping of the National Research Council has
also noted that solar activity has entered into an unusually inactive
phase, but what that means—if anything—is still anyone’s guess. Another
solar scientist, Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of
Natural Sciences, however, is certain that it’s an indication of a
coming cooling period.

Sorokhtin believes that a lack of sunspots does indicate a coming
cooling period based on certain past trends and early records. In fact,
he calls manmade climate change "a drop in the bucket" compared to the
fierce and abrupt cold that can potentially be brought on by inactive
solar phases.

Comments

I think its safe to say that we cannot possibly identify and understand all of the variables using our current technology, which means we can't predict the future yet!

However, we do know that we are polluting the planet with toxic gases, plastics, pesticides, carcinogens and dangerous particulate matter. We need to create a cleaner planet NO MATTER WHAT happens to the climate.

I just hope that people are not so dumb that they equate global warming with the need to be more responsible stewards of the Earth and transition to clean technologies, and global cooling with the opposite.

Either way, we need a cleaner, more sustainable future for our planet. There's a reason why cancer rates have been spiking over the last couple of decades--we're now living in our own filth.

The whole sunspot thing is quite intriguing though. It will be fascinating to see if it turns out to be an indication of anything relevant to our lives or not.

If global warming is occuring and we are in a cooling period, when the sun 'starts up' again we are going to have some really interesting temperatures. We need to find our equilibrium with the planet to ensure that if the cooling ends, we aren't all fried.

Global Warming could be a saving grace in a declining temperate spot. And afterwards we may find we no longer have the oil resources to raise green house gases.

As for the submerged Methylhydrates offshore.. they could end up locked tight under ice.

All this points towards the Earth needs orbital defenses not just from errant asteroids and commetary debris, but something like a solar umbrellas that can be synched together to deflect more sunlight or spread appart to let more in.. not unlike the blinds on your window.. but spread far apart.

And to throw one more doomsday climate factor into the mix.. if the Earth Magnetic field keeps decreasing.. we ought to see about building a gigantic plasma bottle around the earth to capture some of the solar wind and build up a ring system capable of generating a magnetic shield against solaris and cosmic background radiation.

Adolescence sucks as a maturing species.. but Maturing responsibilty is a lot less forgiving if you don't plan for it.

Wow, you really can have your cake and eat it too! This is an awesome way to keep the public in a panic about destroying the earth in a giant watery fireball and still look like we know anything at all about how this planet works. Brilliant.

The approx. 11 year sunspot cycle is normal. Go to wikipedia and look, one picture is enough to blow this article out of the water. This article is written like there is something abnormal happening with the Sun, contrary to evidence, and even goes so far as to suggest buying fur coats, which is ridiculous when global temperatures are topping. There is nothing abnormal going on with the Sun that doesn't happen in 11 year cycle anyway. -- Was this so-called "science" article perhaps sponsored by Chevron Texaco?

Jon, 100 of the best solar physicists from across the globe at the international solar conference at Montana State University recently noted that something somewhat ABNORMAL is going on with the sun. Now I realize that you think you're smarter than all of them, but you're not.

NASA and many other space and solar agencies from around the globe have also concluded with at least some small amount of concern that our Sun has had a weird 11-year inactive phase that was supposed to peak, but never did and is still barely registering any sunspot activity. That is not an opinion. That is fact.

Also, this article didn't suggest stocking up on fur coats, but it did quote a respected solar physicist who suggested stocking up on fur coats. You don't have to agree with him, of course, and many people don't, but why do you equate global cooling with Chevron? We'd have every much as good of reasons to develop clean energy no matter what the climate does.

The article stated several times that no one (and I suspect that also applies to you Jon) really knows if this strange lull means anything yet, but that doesn't mean should put on blinders and refuse to accept any kind of scientific observation that doesn't coincide with our own personal opinions.

People, PLEASE stop equating environmental responsibility with global warning. Its like you need some kind of mascot, other than the Earth itself, to rally behind when it comes to cleaning up the planet.

Its a given that oil and coal are filthy and substandard sources of energy that are polluting our planet, not just with CO2, but with many toxic byproducts as well. Whether we're headed for another ice age or not, people still want better water and air quality!

I can't understand the logic of someone who thinks that if the world isn't getting warmer (which it most likely is)then that means that we no longer need clean energy sources. That is stupid for two reasons A)Oil supplies will run out eventually anyway and B) oil-based fuel exhaust is extremely polluting to our planet RIGHT NOW aside from the CO2.

Lets not center the environmental movement around global warming. If we do, then every time the thermometer drops we'll have people thinking that the environment doesn't matter anymore.

Its OK for scientists too speculate that the world might get cooler, and this was an interesting article about that possibility. But that doesn't mean we environmentalists need to get bent out of shape--lets not base all of our arguments around GW, because that's just one part of all of the serious environmental issues we are facing like habitat destruction, mass biocide, rampant air and water pollution and so forth.

"Lets not center the environmental movement around global warming. If we do, then every time the thermometer drops we'll have people thinking that the environment doesn't matter anymore."

LoL, this is exactly what I say every time I see an environmental commercial on MTV. Rather than jump to conclusions on an extremely confusing subject, why not just use this as a wake up call to do better environmentally? Not encourage everyone to transform there house into a subway bathroom. Can everyone do better? Sure, but you shuoldent feel bad if you leave your computer on 24 hours a day.

The Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark has been working on and refining his sun / sunspot / magnetic field / low cloud seeding theory of global warming for > 10 years. I have his book, and the theory is remarkably comprehensive, I suspect much more so than the CO2 theory. He's gotten very little exposure in the mass media, much, much less than he deserves.

That the above linked article doesn't mention him is a testament to this.

Tad, try reading the article more carefully before making assumptions. It never says that Chapman was at that particular conference, in fact it clearly states that Dr Chapman's thoughts were an extract from The Australian.

I can see how you could get confused since the first half of the article focuses on the sun spot concern and featured people who were at that particular conference, but the second half is focusing on the mini ice age theory itself and what experts have said about that theory's plausibility.

Jon Smith, please read the article PROPERLY!!! It isn't saying that a minimum in sunspots is abnormal, it's saying that the latest absence of sunspots is abnormal because it's been going on FOR SO LONG! It's clear that you haven't even read the article properly -- you've obviously just skipped through it, probably thinking that it's some anti-global warming piece, when actually it just presents some of the facts relating to the present state of the Sun.

Sri, the latest little sunspot you saw on that website doesn't mean the Sun is "not dead". During the Maunder Minimum, tiny sunspots still appeared occasionally. But sunspots are typically much, much larger than that latest pinprick.

All of the above screaming and yelling about sun spots vs global warming is irrelevant.

What needs to be made utterly clear is that we as a species MUST achieve two sets of goals pretty much simultaneously;
A: Develop Clean Technologies of every variety across the board.
B: Focus on the technologies required for us to become a space faring race PDQ!

The Earth is far too small and vulnerable a basket in which to keep all our eggs.

Hmm. Sounds right on queue with the precession of the equinoxes, the angle of obliquity, Milankovitch cycling, etc... as usual. Probably why many prophecies go on about '1000 years of peace' or the the worldwide mental evolution into the 'thousand petalled lotus'... without civilization "as we know it" being the way of life, we will be naturalized back into reality. Perhaps faster than we are ready to accept. I am first-hand dealing with the economical collapse of America's dollar, and food sourcing, on my own budget and time, and I wonder: "should I learn how to hunt and gather?" Being exposed to the elements, rather than 'maintained' at a constant 72-degrees like most, I just may make it. Will international laws let me? I sure hope that the masses feel like I do about such laws.

But hey, for a 'dead sun,' it sure seems to make a difference on our weather patterns when the "shields are down" (Moon at Neap Tide/Apogee) and those CMEs (coronal mass ejections) are throwing x-rays right in our faces. Within the next 5 days, we've got 'em coming again, just like the last 'anomolistic month' ago when it snowed in Albuquerque, hailed in Durango, Nor'eastered by the 'Lakes, tornadoed in Denver, earthquaked in China, and flooded in the NW United States.... Wonder what those effects'll do to our genetic memory banks? Oh well. Just watch the "SOHO" station for the real news.

In the meantime, learn how to grow your own food, make your clothes, heal your self, power your stuff, and get clean water.

Going along with Jon Smith above ... Why do we need apocalyptic news to get people's attention on science? I've been observing the sunspots for years over cycles 21-22-23 (not much time for it lately, unfortunately). We know the solar cycle is a mix of regularity (11 years magnetic inversion, give or take a few) and chaotic behaviour.
The 5 past cycles (19 to 23), roughly from 1950, have been particularly strong in terms of sunspot numbers, compared to the previous centuries. See http://sidc.oma.be/sunspot-index-graphics/sidc_graphics.php
for graphics of solar activity. The current minimum is a bit deep, but there have been similar ones in the past three centuries. Before infering anything, monitor the beginning of cycle 24 and look at the figures provided at http://sidc.oma.be/sunspot-data/dailyssn.php. Rare sunspots at this time of the cycle is "normal", as are the news provided by the SIDC at http://sidc.oma.be/. I would rather stay tuned there, where serious science (gathering data, testing activity models and forecasts, etc) has been going on for decades. No apocalypse announced there.

Just a complement for those thinking I'd be as biased as to only trust European sources :)
One click from a link quoted in the article : "Solar Cycle 24 predictions from NASA" (updated 2008/06/04)http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml
No mention of "Dead Sun" on this page either ...

I just commented on solar cycle, but skipped through "... the world cooled quickly between January last year and January this year, by about 0.7C ..." certainly because I could not believe my eyes. How can one assert such things against all known figures? Which is the source of this value? At http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2007/ann/global.html
on can read "The global annual temperature for combined land and ocean surfaces in 2007 was +0.55°C (+0.99°F) above the 20th century average, ranking 5th warmest in the period of record."
And at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2008/may/global.html#temp
no trace of "global cooling" either, even if 2008 temperature anomaly so far is "less positive" than in some previous years.
So, please before quoting figures, even from the mouth of scientists, double-check them. There are a lot of reliable, updated data sources on line ...

According to Edgar Cayce (the extremely good channeler, medium, and psychic from the 1930s-40s), sunspots are a reaction to human behavior on earth. Maybe we still have a great deal to learn. Truth may be stranger than fiction!

Well considering some of the figures in the first few paragraphs are grossly wrong, the story can not be taken as anything but ravings.

Sunspots are nothing really to be concerned about, its when there is a unusually higher number, which means a whole heap of solar flares are about to be snapped across the solar system which will fry satellites and electronics and makes the sky look pretty.

By the way ive attended several conferences on global warming and all i can say is corporate bribed scientists making bogus claims by using selective evidence might fly in the mainstream media, but normally a bunch of real scientists will be waiting in the car park for the chump

Why would 100 scientists from Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and North America gather to discuss the issue at an international solar conference at Montana State University, if it was "normal"? If 100 global warming scientists meet to discuss ice melt, then it becomes front page news in support of the new religion known as the AGW cult. When 100 solar scientists discuss an abnormality, in contradiction to AGW, then it's ....what?

It is too early to say if there is any credibility in this story either way.

I would urge caution on both sides though. The pro AGW people should check all there raw data too. Much of it is pure bunk.

As the solar system traverses the galactic plane, the
system enters a neutral zone that tamps down solar
activity.

This is an ELECTRIC UNIVERSE, and just as the Earth
has polar opposites, so does the solar system and
our galaxy.

Earth is entering a period of extreme changes, due to
both precession of the equinoxes and its solar system
traversing the galactic plane; a very rare occurrence,
this double-whammy hit!, which portends great climate
and geological DISRUPTIONS (( too gentle a term for
what's coming )).

why does the article talk about younger-dryas, which has nothing to do with sun spots? If I hadn't known what about the younger-dryas event to know it's bogus to the article, it'd have me believing all sorts of nonsense.

Currently the Earth is entering a new solar minimum, similar to the Dalton or Maunder Minimum, with much colder climate as during the coldest parts of The Little Ice Age.

Why is that?
Well, normally the Sun is pushed around in quite small regular elliptical movements by the gravitational forces from Jupiter and Saturn. At these times the solar activity is high.
But at regular intervals the Sun’s trajectory get disturbed and then at times the Sun moves backward during which time the gravitational push on the Sun’s plasma is greatly reduced.
This happened last time in 1990. This slowdown is now reducing the Sun’s eruptional and magnetic activity and has now started a process of a sharp cooling down of the Earth’s climate.

Will global warming from greenhouse gases help us?
Not likely! The global warming scientists are a bunch of agenda driven scientist who come to the wrong conclusion, ignoring the dominant effect of the Sun because of peer-pressure and a reluctance to look at other causes. Their science is subjective looking for one cause only and not objective.

The CO2’s greenhouse effect is highly logarithmic and has already become saturated, so if manmade global warming would be a problem we should already seen temperature increase of 2 to 3 degrees C. That is not the case.

I hate to sound like a global warming alarmist.
But, this is the perfect storm. The politicians try to reduce the amount of fossil fuel use for transportations, fertilizers and heating. Add to that, that now substantial part of the world food production is used for bio-fuel.
This is now inevitable leading to spreading of more poverty, famine and death.
Because of the global cooling we can expect in the coming decades this will only get worse particularly with the polices which is in direct opposition to what is needed.

Hey has anybody considerd the fact that a lot of the really old buildings in old russia and in the fairy tales always have steep roofs? that has no explanation if one looks at the wheather over the last two hundred years. Also hows about the ideal of the great wall of china was built to keep the russion hungry out of china instead of the Russion army's???? just some rambling thoughts here, Happy thinking

I recommend you give up on the idea that the sun is a nuclear furnace. It's an Anode in the magnetic field of the galaxy and gets it's power directly from the galactic arm.

The sun has a surface which is being machined electrically by 'tornadoes' of fire. They form cells with each other and you can see the tops of them move like a flowing liquid. This is the plasma. The sunspots are where the magnetic field becomes so powerful it twists and sometimes begins to arc. This is the transistion from "plasma glow mode" to "plasma arc mode" This is displayed in LABRATORIES. The suns power depends on the region of space we are travelling through and the flow of electricity along the Galactic arm.

Ella, sounds like you missed the point. The article mentions the younger-dryas period because it's a perfect example of how periods of cooling can a)happen quickly, and b)come without any apparent warning and c)scientists can't explain many of Earth's past climate changes where the planet has suddenly gotten colder/warmer, and they surely can't accurately predict whether or not hidden variables (precisely because they aren't known or understood) could cause the world to inexplicably get colder/warmer again.

It doesn't state anywhere that younger-dryas was or was not connected to sunspot activity, it merely used it as an example of an unexplainable and sudden change in climate from past history. If you think humans have great predictive powers then I suggest reading The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It nicely illustrates the point that even in today's high tech culture, we are far from being able to predict the future--there are too many variables and unknowns out there.

It really nice to read about impending disasters that do not involve Iran,Bush,impeachment,GOP,Dick and Donald! Roll on the "election" in November, then we can read more interesting submissions like this one.

"I just think it's funny that Gore, who is so worried about GW, lives in a house that expends more energy than 20 times the national norm. Is he really that worried?"

You conveniently omit to mention that Al Gore has covered his mansion with photovoltaic panels, has a geothermic pump, uses windmills too, and is therefore not dependent on the grid for his electricity but even feeds electricity INTO the grid. I have never heard of him being worried about GW with regard to GW's residence, either.

Titan is one hellava interesting moon of Saturn; lakes of liquid natural gas and enough to be several hundred times US reserves.
No one is going to suggest that there were dinosaurs plus their fodder there, which after a cataclysm were converted to natural gas.
So that means that the natural gas we have here had the same origin - the solar disc.
What if we have several hundred years supply of it here but are being told fossil fuel, fossil fuel ad infinitum, with the inference that it will soon run out, to jack up the price, as there could not have been physically all that much biological matter to begin with ?
And if we do have several hundred years supply of it we had better stop using it soon, because as it was never part of the biosphere to begin with, what happens when we end up with 5,000ppm CO2 and not the 390ppm we have now ?
During dinosaur times the CO2 concentration ranged b/n 1500 and 2500ppm.

Uhhh...you need to read that again. His spokesperson said that they are 'in the process' of installing those panels. (of course AFTER he was nailed for only getting SOME of his energy from renewable sources)So take the validity of that claim for what you will.
The fact that the 'green crusader' is in a position to have to make any kind of statement like this speaks volumes.

Simple fact, Gore was/is using a huge amount of natural gas, which is non-renewable and using a lot of electricity that was from non-renewable sources.

He is a politician and by extension a liar and a hypocrite. It should come as no shock to anyone.

Oh but he does use the CFB's and buy off other people to do the carbon reduction for them with BS offsets so that makes up for it. /sarc

Since Gore Hi-Jacked the Nobel prize for Global Warming, he still doesn't get it. A majority of the gases really come from volcanic activity with all the particulate matter expelled into th upper atmosphere. Like what was said, human intervention is just a drop in the bucket.

Mr. Dave Neesan,
I chuckled when you said the sun spots dont really mean anything. The sun, the single greatest driving force and source of heat to our planet, doesnt really mean anything? Of course, thats not exactly what you said and I understand, you said when large (larger than earth) size areas of the sun have great jumps in energy, again i dont quit understand the science completely, the result doesnt really mean anything. Why then, during the Dalton minimum, was there very few to none sunspots identified? Why, would our earth be cooling at an amazing rate when we havent spotted any sunspots? This surely cant be caused by us. And the lack of sunspots does oddly correlate with the drop in temperature. So I have to say I think that sunspots do affect us, because its the sun, and its big and hot and thats where we get out heat. Also, I saw an interesting graph the other day, cant find it anymore which is a bummer, about the ice age cycles, and where we were located currently in our cycle, and how it matches the points on the other recorded ice age cycles for where we enter a true ice age. Obviously its not 100%, or even 80% accurate, but plus, definitely not minus, a few hundred/thousand years and hey, its going to get cold.

It is regrettable that so many people on the green side of the global warming issue speak in platitudes about stopping the waste and the pollution without acknowledging that waste and pollution are stopped by creating prosperity. The poorer the human race is the more we pollute. With increased prosperity we can afford to clean our own nest. Higher energy prices make mankind poorer and ultimately make us bigger polluters. Cheap energy allows us to spend less on food, clothing, shelter and transportation with more left over to educate, invent and clean the environment. I know this concept is antithetic to leftists' thinking, so now I'll sit back and let their hate flow.

I agree with Ken Hall's comments. The Solar System is entering into an alignment with the Winter Solstice Sun between now and 2012. Mythology and Religious stories describe an ancient Sun Spot eruption about 12,000 years ago. We are due for one now. The lack of Sun spots should indicate the opposite, but I would not be supprised if in mid-July 2008 the Sun erupts and we begin a downward cascade toward a New Ice Age.
I am stocking up on fur coats!

Dear Humans: Your ignorance and arrogance is amusing. There are forces at work that you are not aware of. The sun has been turned down a bit to compensate for rising temperatures to give you more time to clean up your mess and create a sustainable civilization. You are entirely dependant upon fossil fuels which will become painfully scarce soon. The last great reserves are in Eastern Antarctica and you will have to use that oil and gas to restructure your societies and live within your means. If it should get a little too chilly, the sun will be turned up. You can make the necesssary changes in a graceful manner or continue to be the horses asses you have always been, embrace diasaster and become the laughing stock of the Universe.

Regards,

Xavier Lambsbottle

P.S. You know who is back and dissappointed with your lack of progress. He will not return again, this is your last chance.

One simple way to understand the magnetic flip we appear to be going into is via 'photon chemistry' (see www.unifiedphysics.com). What this means is that the photon states associated with the average atomic structures of lead and other heavy atoms within the earth's core have been exposed to more negative Solar energy leading to a cooling. Therefore the photons in their role as atomic and molecular binding energies have changed (lowered)state and are capable of instantaneously changing magnetic states.

There is evidence for earth's flips that occur on average every 250,000 years. We see flips in now solidified rocks and in (the tracks of) magnetotactic fossils.

Flip reversals would mean a changing magnetic field making it difficult at best to navigate, and also a changing climate, including global warming. Up is down and down is up.

It's possible to tie in the Maunder minimum into this mechanism which IMHO is involved with glabal cooling. The 'mini-Ice Age' of the 16th century is revealed by a minimum number of sun spots. My feeling is that these sun spots are evidence of 'streams' connecting the Sun with the centre of our own Galaxy. When they are present then cold energy is REMOVED from our Solar System leaving the local energy within the Solar System warmer. When these streams are NOT present then cold energy REMAINS within the Solar System. '

I would not worry too much about climate change or the enviornment because Maurice Strong, David Rockerfeller and their buddies have the problem covered. “As Kissinger said back in the 1970’s, ‘Control the oil and you can control entire Continents. Control food and you control people…” WTO, OIE and FAO already have the draft ”Guide to Good Farming Practices” ready to go and the European Union is implementing it. This eliminates family farms. See http://www.i-sis.org.uk/savePolishCountryside.php

. “In the EU, there is now a list of 'official' vegetable varieties. Seed that is not on the list cannot be 'sold' to the 'public' To keep something on the list costs thousands of pounds each year.” Monsanto of course has the listed seeds patented and is ready to implement “terminator” genes so EVERYONE must buy new seed each year. (Cross pollination will sterilize any old fashioned varieties, guess thats the reason for Bill Gates' seed vault.)

Think this doesn't effect the USA - WRONG. “..the United States and the European Union have signed up to a new transatlantic economic partnership that will see regulatory standards “harmonized” and will lay the basis for a merging of the US and EU into one single market, a huge step on the path to a new globalized world order.” BBC reported (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6607757.stm)

Currently the USDA is issuing all livestock farms “premises IDs” (no property rights) and RFID tagging “the National herd” as the first step. ”the Guide to Good Farming Practices” and heavy fines used to confiscate farmland are already in the planning stages as the next step. The FDA has just issued a statement indicating crop farms will also be regulated.

In a 1974 report to Nixon by Kissinger “they’re talking about eliminating three billion people in the world and 100 million American’s before the end of 2050.” With the big corporations controlling the food supply eliminating that “excess” population should not be a problem. After all Stalin did it to the Ukraine. This elimination and control of the remaining population will have very positive effects on the enviornment.

The first thought that came to mind was HM what;s the sun getting ready to do? 2nd thought isn't 2012 coming in about 2 and 1/2 years. 3 Whats going to happen then and no I was not thinking the end of the world but anythings possible. Shake my head the sun is dead, suns die violently my friends, ooooh!

I do not know why anyone would be worrying about the sun. My time is spent worrying about Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Georgia.

If you read the latest reports you have over 400 dead zones in the ocean. As an avid diver I can tell you the reefs and fish populations are screwed up. Big difference over 10 years.

Sushi and lobster will be thing of the past in the next ten years. Remember you heard it here first. People often joked that the oceans are the earths toilet bowl. Well, its also the largest filtration system on the planet. Once that goes...we all go.

You can joke about the super-elite trying to starve of the population..but it does not make a difference...only the people with the most ammo will survive.

According to the Farmer's Almanac, the northern hemisphere has been colder this year and we are facing a tough winter season. Strangely the ice is melting on or near the north pole on an enprecedented
scale, while the ocean temperatures have remained unchanged according to current measurments. Also most of the planets have heated up lately (without the presence of Green House gases) without any reasonable explanation? So something strange is going on! As a spiritualist I can talk to the sun - same as with any rocks or physical objects - and what she tells me is that she is in a resting stage without any noticable external manifestations of any sort - but will come back with extreme force in 2015.

As a matter of facts some scientist on the national geographic programme on TV -Sat of Sky sustained few days ago that the sunspots are like a small hand lamp near the lighthouse.....Nothing...NO effect.

This female scientist must be a little crazy ...or needs a vacation.

Sunspot at regular SSN and with regular cycles of 11 years are part of our life on this planet ...NO sunspots....likely means : big issues.

Then what about the effects of drastic reduction of Sunspots on the so called ice age and on the global warming due to greenhouse gases and due to continents (tectonic plates)movements ????

I assert and maintain that nobody really knows...in exact terms how the Sunspot reduction will influence the temperature change (reduction) on the various continents of this planet....that also include Artic zone and Antartica that are just now .....de-hicing.

They (scientists) will know soon and we will perceive ...( if I am correct) and likely will need to switch on our house heaters much earlier this year.

Not only We understand marginally our sun and what happens below the photosphere...but we have scarce information about stop of sunspots or drastic reduction and consequent temperature collapse.

This does NOT change the healty criterion that we (humans) shall generate much less green house gases and stop dumping garbage of various kind around the seas.

An interesting unknown : the exact relation between the Sunspot decay and the temperature decay....I hope the sunspot number and cycle will re-start again....so the comments to the article (well done) will decay too.....and we will consume less gas , electricity and fuel to heat our houses (i.e. save some money in these dark money days)

how is it chaos theory co-exists with an electrically stable universe model to this very day?
what a waste of phi energy it would be, if it turns out- the sun's only purpose is to destroy the planets at any given time.

I just returned from visiting Yellowstone and was struck by the devastation of the 1988 fires, which were preceeded by acute drought and record setting dry lightening. I began to wonder what solar activity occured leading up the 1988 fire storms. Solar cycle 22 started just a couple of years before that summer of drought and dry lightening. Check this out. Relative to other cycles, that solar cycle had 1) a very fast rise time - 2.8 years, 2) a very short cycle length - 9.7 years, 3) a high minimum sun spot number - 12.3, and 4) a high maximum sun spot number - 158.5

wow still waiting for the sunspots to kik in all hf bands are pretty low ,most c/s heard here are the big guns 1kw and above are still heard daily but running 10 watts in to a 20/15/10m vk2abq 2 ele square beam ant @45feet does not stand a chance a just hope they apear soon the sun spots that is so my little 10watts will get me around the world thanks and their is some great comments be in left cheers pat

up the geometry so that the seeker missile will see the brighter side of the satellite rather than the dark side.
In the event that that can't be done or if the satellite is tumbling or rotating, it makes sense to wait till just after sunset when the satellite is moving from the sunlit side of the earth to the dark side. The satellite will be warmest (brightest) since it will have just spent 45 minutes basking in the sun light. When the satellite is in the earth's shadow it will cool down as the heat is radiated away. So it will be coolest just as it enters the sunlight from behind the earth.
The earth will block the sun from http://ankara-nakliyat.name.tr shining into the sensors eyes. This will give the sensor the best contrast on the target making it easier to see. It will also ensure that the sensor will not lock on to the sun and try to steer the seeker to it.
You also want to launch the missile http://ankara-nakliyatcim.org from the ground track of the satellite so that the missile does not have to move sideways a lot to get in front of the satellite. since this satellite is in a polar orbit it will appear to travel northeast for a while and then reverse to a southeast track then back to north east ............ as it orbits the earth while the earth spins.
So it makes sense to set up near the equator and wait for it to come at you from the northwest or southwest just after sunset.

Its OK for scientists too speculate that the world might get cooler, and this was an interesting article about that possibility. But that doesn't mean we environmentalists need to get bent out of shape--lets not base all of our arguments around GW, http://www.estetikameliyat.com/ because that's just one part of all of the serious environmental http://www.estetiks.com/ issues we are facing like habitat destruction, mass biocide, rampant air and water pollution and so forth.

I just hope that people are not so dumb that they equate global warming with the need to be more responsible stewards of the Earth and transition to clean technologies, and global cooling with the opposite. Whatever the sun http://www.estetik.ws/ is up to, our options remain the same. Lose the sportsfan/politicalshill mentality folks, it's not about choosing a side it's about fixing our problems and evolving. http://www.estetikas.com/

It is an axiom of science that if the outcome of an experiment or event does not accord with that predicted by a theory, the theory must be discarded, no matter how attractive it may have appeared initially. That very situation now exists in relation to the projections of world climate as published by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The IPCC prediction of increasing concentration of so-called greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere causing atmospheric temperatures to increase, dubbed “Global Warming”, seemed to have some merit, and there was widespread acceptance of it. However more recent impeccable data demonstrates that atmospheric temperatures are falling, and in fact have been falling for some years. The postulated connection between atmospheric temperature and atmospheric CO2 has broken down, and therefore the “greenhouse gas” proposition has failed. The disparity between the IPCC prediction and observed data continues to widen, and no amount of rhetoric can alter this. The tests on which IPCC relies now contradict its scenario, and therefore its proposition is discredited.

It also follows, as an axiom, that if there is some other theory which accords with observed data, that proposition must be given serious consideration, especially if the alternate theory also accords with and explains past factual data.

There is such a theory; that propounded by the late Professor Rhodes Fairbridge of Australia and others. Decades of scientific research and observational data, both recent and historical, have gone into this study, as detailed in the meticulous summary published in Australia by Dr Richard Mackey in 2007; “Rhodes Fairbridge and the idea that the solar system regulates the Earth’s climate”.

It is usually believed that the planets orbit around the sun, but this is not so – the sun and the planets orbit around the centre of mass of the solar system (termed the barycentre) in so-called “barycentric orbits”. Sometimes the barycentre is inside the sun, and at other times well away from the sun, depending on the juxtapositions of the planets especially Saturn, Jupiter and Neptune. The orbit path of the sun as the locations of barycentre and planets alter is complex, as demonstrated by Fairbridge. This divergent behavior causes widely varying outputs of energy from the sun on a regular basis, and these variations in the interactions between the sun and the planets have been assessed by various geological and related studies. The variations in energy correlate with uncanny precision with past vagaries of the Earth’s climate on a cyclical basis, the periodicity being about 179 years.

The correlations with recurring periods of very cold weather, as evidenced by historical data, can only be described as irrefutable.

Some years ago Fairbridge predicted that the next cooling period would commence in about 2006, and would be evident by 2011; and his prediction thus conforms with recent atmospheric temperature data, i.e. the Fairbridge hypothesis conforms with the observed data, and its predictions conform with the outcome. Like it or not, the barycentric orbit explanation for climate supplants the IPCC projections. Anyone who reads Mackey’s summary could not fail to come to this conclusion.

So what of the IPPC and their publication; “Climate Change 2007 : Summary for Policymakers”? At first sight an impressive document; however closer study reveals that it comprises no fewer than six “scenarios”; and there are wide variations between the “projections” of the six. Clearly there cannot be more than one correct prediction, so it follows that at least five of the scenarios are wrong. But which five? And if the IPCC is unable to discern between the reliability or otherwise of the six, how can we be expected to have any faith in any one of the six?

The short answer is that we cannot. And that conclusion is completely justified by Fairbridge’s research, Mackey’s summary of parallel research (109 references); correlation with and explanation of undeniable experimental data which is totally at variance with the multiple IPCC scenarios; and all in accord with the prime data.

To use the vernacular, it is no contest. The much-vaunted IPCC scenarios are patently wrong. The man-made climate change proposition fails. And with it fails the whole panjandrum of carbon trading; the Government’s Emission Trading Bill; Mr Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” which does not live up to its title. More to the point – the world’s climate will be cold and harsh for decades. And it’s started already!

So what effects will this inescapable cold period have on New Zealand? In a word, catastrophe. Space does not permit a detailed assessment of the many adverse effects, but the dire condition of our electricity supply must be mentioned. It simply will not cope. There must be a complete re-evaluation of policy as regards electricity, and a rejection of policies based on the now-discredited IPCC fantasy.

Then there is the matter of so-called sea level change, with claims usually based on apparent rise in sea level at some almost-submerged islands. But this proposition assumes that the shape of the earth is rigid and that changes in apparent sea levels constitute proof of rising water levels. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Earth is not a rigid solid – it is a plastic solid, and its shape is continually altering. A graphic recent example is the upwards lift of northern Canada as this large land mass continues to rebound upwards from downward distortion caused by the huge compression force of the kilometres-thick layer of ice which covered the continent during the last ice age. Distortions of the type in one region cause compensating distortions elsewhere, and it is illogical to ascribe a rise in sea level as being due to an increased volume of water. And this is especially so given the irrefutable research of Professor Morner (Sweden) that no such change is occurring.

Furthermore, the centre of mass of the world’s oceans are affected by the location of the barycentre, and as this alters due the planetary effect outlined above so will be sea level appear to alter.

In summary, the projections of the IPCC and simplistic, subjective and proven wrong. The whole issue requires a fresh start, based on the mass of irrefutable data which has been assembled. Certainly New Zealand should not incur massive costs based on the puerile IPCC data, and indeed should take a lead internationally to refute the whole of the “conventional wisdom”.

Wow, you really can have your cake and eat it too! This is an awesome way to keep the public in a panic about destroying the earth in a giant watery fireball and still look like we know anything at all about how this planet works. Brilliant.http://www.dr-fatihdagdelen.com

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I am willing to be convinced that Global Warming is occurring, Global warming is the direct of human behaviour, and it is most efficient for us to do something about it, likely via carbon taxes.Yes, I could be convinced, p... [Read More]